Australia playing are far more positive grand of football this time around, and have had quite a few good chances, as have Cote de Ivore (sp?). Niki Rukaetc. gets into some good possies, but has deadset the worst first touch for an attacking playing.

I have been wondering what the reason is behind not calling them the Ivory Coast in this telecast...is it the same reason people say 'Pareeee' instead of Paris, cwasonne instead of croissant, and (most recently as I've noticed) erbs instead of herbs...i.e they're pretentious tossers?

Actually I did read that the govt of the Ivory Coast prefers it not to be called this and always referred to by its French name, does anyone know why?

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Yeah, was harsh on him the in the first 2 games, but he does get into some really good threatening positions, just lacks the touch of a real quality player, so there's potential. Musalik & Spiranovic are gun though (y)

With Burns, Djite, Williams and Vidic. A couple of them should have made of squad to give us more options. But at the end of day none of them scored many goals during the qualifies. Milligan and Sarkies were leading goal scorers in qualifiers. There was no formation that worked with Williams or Burns in the side, both basically played as wingers when we had two strikers in XI. Vidic never got a game due to him and Spiranovic prefering to stay in Germany and push for starting spots at Nuremburg.

Even if these guys did make the squad I would have had them behind Bridge and Thompson. Ruka got potential but is even further away from being a finished product then Burns, Djite, Williams or Vidic. Which was the claim used by Arnold was his selection ahead of them.

Holland was the other big name player, considering he was a regular in Socceroos squad lately. But as I guess with Musalik and Milligan playing holding roles in midfield he would have been just a bench player.

End of day though if you look back at past Olyroo squads guys like Niell, Bres, Grella, Holman, MacDonald, Carney, Culina, Thompson and Kennedy. All played bit part roles or got rejected during the time they were at that stage during their career. Australia never had great history of picking future Socceroos in Olyroos squads.

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Not having Burns & Djite, who're arguably our 2 best u-23 attacking options hurt. Reckon we'd have slotted another goal or 2 if they'd been in the squad.

Yup. Didn't think much of Djite must say, but on reflection he'd have added a bt of bite up front.

Obviously struggling with unavailability of big guns, but still not sure about Archie Thompson as an over age choice. Maybe if they could have had someone like a Grella in the mid field (if he was available) and reiled on the young 'uns up front, might have been better. That, or maybe Kennedy (again, if available).

Thought they played well v Ivory Coast in the 1st 2/3 of the field, just lacked a bit of bite up front.

I have been wondering what the reason is behind not calling them the Ivory Coast in this telecast...is it the same reason people say 'Pareeee' instead of Paris, cwasonne instead of croissant, and (most recently as I've noticed) erbs instead of herbs...i.e they're pretentious tossers?

Actually I did read that the govt of the Ivory Coast prefers it not to be called this and always referred to by its French name, does anyone know why?

I might be wrong, but I think it's the same reason that Bombay is called Mumbai, ie to rid all mention of the dirty British past

(edit) Scrap that, what am I thinking, it was never a British colony. The reason is because they prefer the French name anyway

The country was originally known in English as Ivory Coast. In October 1985, the government requested that the country be known in every language as Côte d'Ivoire,[8] without a hyphen between the two words (thereby contravening the standard rule in French that geographical names with several words must be written with hyphens).